Boldness

·         Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, a uncertain wavering. We can have the most splendid plans, but yet without action, stay in the same place year after year. Whatever you dream, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

look forward

·         What about now? It's time to make those changes, it's time to take those risks, it's time to reach your potential. Life places many challenges and roadblocks in front of us. These are here to test our will, our meddle, our desire. The strength to overcome is within you. This is your time. There is no looking back. Do it now, make yourself the best you yet. There is no better time to start than right now.

 

 

I AM HOME

I AM HOME!

HERE'S MERVY.........

MERVMAIL WILL RESUME SHORTLY.

Hasta La Vista

Mervynator is on vacation next week……No mervmails : (

I’ll be back!!

Hasta La Vista, Baby!!!

success

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all... You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side.

Develop attitude

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Work Harder

·         No matter how much weight you lose or strength you gain, if you are not happy with who you are or where you are right now in your journey, you will never be satisfied! Work harder, lift heavier, push yourself farther, but love yourself through it all...you only will ever get one you and you are awesome! ;)

 

Right now

What you do today can change the course of your life far into the future. Today is critical. Today really counts. Don't give away the gift of time today with a hope that you will do it tomorrow. The only moment we have any control over is right now. Live the moment to its fullest and take full advantage of your opportunity to chance the future.

Tips to reduce weight

When faced with temptation... ;)

Nutrition; 20 rules to a better physique



Nutrition; 20 rules to a better physique

Eat plenty of protein

1. Eat plenty of protein: You’ve heard it before; take in around one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. This is essential if your plan is to build instead of maintain muscle mass.

Eat the right kinds of protein

2. Eat the right kinds of protein: Make sure your proteins are from lean sources such as lean beef, lean ground meats, turkey, fish such as salmon and tilapia, chicken breasts, protein powders, egg whites with a few yolks, skim milk and fat-free or low-fat cottage cheese.

Eat the right kind of carbohydrate

3. Eat the right kind of carbohydrate: Stick with complex carbs such as oatmeal, wheat bread, brown and wild rice, sweet potatoes, wheat pasta, and quinoa. This will ensure that your blood sugar stays steady throughout the day to supply you with ample energy for your hard workouts.

Eat healthy fats

4. Eat healthy fats: Healthy fats are essential for many functions such as brain and heart activity, hormone regulation and energy. Get healthy fats from sources such as oily fish, almonds, avocado, natural peanut butter and oil dressings.

Eat your fruits and vegetables

5. Eat your fruits and vegetables: Fruits and vegetables provide a myriad of benefits including a great source of fiber, photochemicals, vitamins, minerals and natural sugars. For vegetables go for dark leafy greens such as spinach, broccoli, peas, and green beans and for fruits go with bananas, apples, cherries, blueberries and grapefruit.

Consume fiber

6. Consume fiber: Consuming food high in fiber helps keep blood sugar levels steady and can aid in your goals of leaning up. Fiber provides bulk to foods, therefore making you feel fuller longer.

Don’t eat too much

7. Don’t eat too much: We keep on talking about what to do. Well, here is something NOT to do: overeat. Give yourself just enough food to fulfill your protein requirements and to give you enough energy for your intense workouts and that’s it! Eating beyond your needs will result in fat gain.

Eat a surplus while bulking

8. Eat a surplus while bulking: This may sound contrary to the last principle but you need to eat a little more than what you maintain your current bodyweight with in order to gain muscle. Here is the main point: you only need around 200 to 400 additional calories to start gaining quality weight, not a buffet!

Eat into a deficit if dieting

9. Eat into a deficit if dieting: The same hold true for the opposite. A 200 to 400 calorie decrease is all that is needed for your body to start burning fat for fuel. In other words, starving yourself will just make your body hold on to fat tissue.

Protein for breakfast

10. Protein for breakfast: Make sure to get in some quality protein as soon as you rise in the morning. Something like some egg whites with one yolk will do the trick. Eggs are easy to digest and are an excellent source of amino acids. Research has shown that starting your day with a protein food will steady blood sugar and rev the metabolism for the entire day!

Complex carbs for breakfast

11. Complex carbs for breakfast: With that protein you need some energy. Complex carbs with a little fiber thrown in for good measure is perfect for stoking the furnace after an eight hour fasting.

Carb fuel pre workout

12. Carb fuel pre workout: Eating complex carbs an hour or so prior to training will ensure you will have enough energy to make it through your entire workout. Try around 50 to 100 grams of carbs.

Fast-acting protein pre workout

13. Fast-acting protein pre workout: This is a good time to surge your muscles and blood with amino acids from a fast absorbing protein source such as egg whites or whey protein powder. By having this rush of protein you will pack the muscle with protein and be ready for the rebuilding process when you are finished. Consume around 20 to 30 grams pre workout.

Quick protein after training

14. Quick protein after training: The perfect time to start the rebuilding process post training is within 30 minutes of finishing. Taking a fast-acting protein source will guarantee that your muscles will get the muscle building nutrients they need as fast as possible to grow larger and stronger. Consume around 40 to 50 grams of whey protein powder or egg whites.

Simple carbs post training

15. Simple carbs post training: With your protein source you need fast-acting carbs as well. The simple sugars will enter into the muscle cells at a quick rate and will react with certain hormones to kick-start the rebuilding process. Try 50 to 100 grams of a simple carb source with no fiber such as Gatorade, white bread, fruit juice, or dextrose.

No fats immediately after the gym

16. No fats immediately after the gym: Taking in fats after training will only slow down the absorption of vital nutrients trying to get to the broken-down muscle tissue.

Curtail the carbs at night

17. Curtail the carbs at night: As the day progresses lower your carb intake. This will help keep the fat off and aid in fat burning. Have a lean source of protein with a healthy fat and a little fiber. A meat or chicken salad with avocado and oil dressing would be perfect.

Cycle calories

18. Cycle calories: After a while you will hit a plateau in your efforts to either lose or gain weight. The body is incredibly adaptable and sooner or later it will fight change. Try cycling your carbs by having a few days of baseline calories then have a high calorie day followed by a low calorie day. This will keep the body guessing and help to continue your progress.

Cheat once per week

19. Cheat once per week: This is similar to the last principle. Have one meal or entire day per week of whatever you want-within reason. Of course don’t drink massive amounts of alcohol and fast food, but go ahead and eat some food you enjoy eating and have dessert too. This will shock your body out of its normal routine of eating, but just be sure to get back on your diet plan the following day.

Relax: Relax and be patient

20. Relax: Relax and be patient. Progress does not happen overnight. With careful planning and diligence your efforts will be rewarded so don’t worry too much about making giant leaps. Relax and enjoy the process.

In control

·      You are the controller of your own life. Take responsibility for your words, actions and choices. And then adjust them to enable you to move in the direction you wish to go.

Never stop learning

Never stop learning, we have information ALL around us. Learn from others experience and learn from your body. Everyone is different and everyone’s gains come in a slightly different way, so experiment and don't be afraid to change things up.

consistency

Consistency is key, regardless of if you're a competitive bodybuilder or simply someone wanting to stay in shape, do not allow yourself to fall off, if you do get up dust off and start again.

look forward

Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.

You can do it!

Be enthusiastic about your decision. It's YOUR decision! Reach, seek, risk! Don't ever stop. Follow your thoughts and don't listen to others. It's your life and you'll get it.................

You Can Do It!

Believe

Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.

10 Training and Nutrition tips

10 Training and Nutrition tips

1.Muscle failure

1. Training to a point of momentary muscle failure, at which completion of another repetition on any given set is impossible despite your greatest effort, is the only way to force the body to resort to it's biochemical resources sufficiently to stimulate real growth! One of the biggest mistakes I see being made in the gym is when certain individuals will end a set of an exercise just because an arbitrary number of repetitions has been completed. This will do very little to stimulate muscle growth. A set should be terminated only when your muscles have been forced to the point of it being inconceivable to produce 1 more repetition within a working set. I use the word forced, because obviously you know muscle growth doesn't come easy, and literally needs to be forced! Any degree of effort in a set that is less than 100% may yield a bodybuilder some results, but never to the same extent that all out maximum effort will.

2. Training intensity

2. Training intensely is the key to stimulating muscle growth but don't mistake volume for intensity. All too often, people trying to achieve a higher level of intensity in their training make the mistake of assuming that increasing volume and duration are effective methods of boosting training intensity. Let me make this perfectly clear. Volume, and frequency have absolutely nothing to do with intensity! High volume training sessions can actually be counter-productive. So how do you effectively increase intensity? A. By progressively increasing the amount of weight that you use. B. By progressively decreasing the amount of time it takes you to perform a particular amount of work. C. By working your muscles at the capacity of nothing less than 100% on every set.

3.Duration

3. You can train long, or you can train intensely, but you can't do both. For every set completed, more, and more of the body's limited reserve of biochemical resources is used up in an attempt to merely recover from, or compensate for the exhaustive effects of the workout, leaving that much less left over for over-compensation in the form of more muscle mass. Long, drawn out training sessions decrease growth hormone, and testosterone levels, while increasing cortisole levels. This hormonal shift creates a very catabolic environment in the body that will result in muscle loss, and a reduced basal metabolic rate. If it's taking you several hours to get through a workout then you're wasting your time. I suggest never allowing any lifting session to exceed 1 hour in duration.

4.Recovery

4. After a muscle has been stressed sufficiently with high intensity training, you must not train that muscle again too soon so that you allow for the body to respond with a compensatory build up of new muscle tissue. You can measure your progress to determine whether or not you're allowing enough recovery time for growth to take place simply by taking note whether or not you're stronger any time you repeat any given workout.

5.Productivity

5. Training with submaximal weights and low intensity will be easy and unproductive. Training with maximal weights and high intensity will be difficult but highly productive.

6.Stimulate

6. A muscle has 3 levels of strength: positive (raising the weight), static (holding the weight), and negative (lowering the weight). All 3 of these aspects of any exercise must be focused on in order to stimulate maximum muscle growth. In other words, don't throw weight through a range of motion just to get the weight from point A to point B. If you throw, you won't grow!

7.Nutrition

7. Nutrition is important but I find that most people over-obsess about their diets. As much wide spread confusion that exists regarding diets that should be followed in order to burn fat, the premise of the whole issue is actually very simple. Regardless of what you eat, as long as you take in fewer calories than you need in order to meet metabolic and physical activity energy requirements, you will lose fat. Some people have made great progress in fat loss simply by taking my advice and eating what they normally eat, but just eat 1/3 less of everything with the exception of green vegetables, which are actually negative calorie food items that you can eat as much as you want of. Don't complicate your nutrition and make it more difficult than it needs to be. Fats don't make you fat, and carbohydrates don't make you fat. Calories consumed beyond the body's maintenance and growth needs make you fat.

8.Cardio

8. Cardio: Physical activity every day is important. If you want to stay lean year round cardio is a must. Not only do you burn calories during cardio but your metabolism stays elevated afterwards – keeping it revved up is important to remaining lean.

9.Patience

9. Be patient! Too many people want it all right now so they become frustrated. Don't get discouraged when progress doesn't seem to be coming quickly enough. I've been there before, so I know how it feels. I can tell you from experience that if you are persistent it will pay off eventually. It took me 20 years to put on 40 lbs of muscle! That averages out to roughly 1.5 pounds of muscle gained each year!

10.Supplementation

10. Select quality supplements. Too many brands on the market are all show, and no go. Many supplement companies are strictly out to get your money by using flashy, or fraudulent advertising to attract you to buy a cheaply made product that doesn't do a damn thing.



Love your body

·         All it needs is good, wholesome food, a little exercise and plenty of rest! And what is so amazing, is that even after years of poor nutrition and lack of exercise, it is ready to begin the repair and damage reversal process at any given time it starts getting what it needs. That is the truth!

Daily routine

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

Pain

The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth.

Slow progress

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

I will

Stop saying ‘I Wish’ and start saying ‘I Will’.

Surround yourself

·         All I know is the world works in mysterious ways...don't allow the doubters in your path to stand in the way of who you are meant to be. You shine brightly. Believe in yourself and surround yourself with those who believe in you.